University of Miami Sugar Cookies

I am a huge University of Miami football fan and since we went from unranked to #15 after week two of the season, I decided it would be fun to make some sugar cookies in The U’s theme. I found THIS picture on Pinterest from and used that as my inspiration… as I mentioned in THIS instalife post, this was my first time in a long time making cookies “just because” and I had so much fun with it! These were fairly easy as I had many of the shapes I needed in cutters from a big set that I got forever ago, but if you didn’t you can always print the shapes onto card stock and then cut them out with a knife! These can easily be adapted for any college or pro football team so get creative and really wow your friends at the next tailgate party!

Start off by baking your cookies. I use THIS recipe for the sugar cookie dough. For the stadium, I printed a 5″ x 5″ square onto card stock then cut out my dough using a fluted pastry wheel (1) but you can also just use a knife! For the jersey and Al Golden’s shirt I used the onesie cutter from THIS set that I had from the cookies from THIS shower and just cut off the bottom so it was just a shirt (2). For the helmet I had a helmet cutter from the set (3), it was one of those huge boxes of 100 cutters that you can get at Target, WalMart, craft stores, etc. For the U medallions I used a small circular cutter from the same set that had a fluted edge (4). For Sebastian I traced a circle onto a piece of paper then drew his beak out of it to get the right shape (5) it’s basically just a circle with a rounded triangle coming out of it that’s angled down a bit. For the footballs, I had a cutter in the set previously mentioned (6). Once you have the cookies rolled, cut and onto baking sheets lined with parchement or silpats, freeze for about 5 minutes until firm… this helps them to keep their shape. Preheat your oven to 400 degrees and bake for about 7 minutes, rotating your sheets halfway through. Cool for a couple minutes on the sheets, then transfer to wire racks to cool completely. Leave the stadium cookies on the sheets to cool, since they are so big it’s hard to move them without breaking them until they’re cool!

Make a batch of royal icing by combining 1 lb confectioner’s sugar, 5 tbsp meringue powder and 1/2 scant cup of warm water in the bowl of a stand mixer and beating on medium speed for 7 minutes. You need a slightly thinner consistency for the first layer of icing on each cookie and then a thicker consistency for the second layer which is where you get your detail from. I find it easier to leave the icing in the mixer bowl, covered with a damp tea towel and then just scoop some out into bowls to mix colors and consistency. For the first layer of the stadium, you’ll need flood-consistency (which is runny enough to cover your cookie but thick enough to hold its shape) in a light green color. I do all my flood colors in the plastic candy melt bottles that you can find in any Wilton section of craft stores or Walmart. Outline a rectangle in the top half of your square and fill with icing (1). Cover in green and orange ball sprinkles (2) and carefully remove any excess sprinkles, then flood the rest of the cookie (3). For the jerseys, make a slightly darker green and flood the whole shirt (4). For Al Golden’s shirt, just thin out some of the icing from the mixing bowl and flood the whole shirt (5). For the helmets you can do some orange, some green and some white or do them all one color. I forgot to take pics (it’s so easy to forget when you get in the zone!) but you’re just flooding the helmet part of the cookie, not where the face mask is. For the U medallion, flood the circle with white icing (6). For Sebastian, draw the beak shape in orange icing (and even though it’s not shown in the picture, add a small white strip in the beak for his “teeth”) then flood the rest in white making a triple rounded shape at the top for the hat (7). For the football, flood the shape with a dark brown color.

For the second layer of icing, you’re going to want a pretty thick consistency so that it holds it shape but not too thick that you can’t push it through. I used to use the same candy melt bottle for the detail layer but I’ve found it much easier (and nicer looking) to use a small piping bag fitted with a #2 tip. For the stadium, outline the blank green rectangle on the bottom with white and draw the yard lines (I did these ones diagonal and other ones straight, whichever you prefer!) and then outline the whole cookie in black and add section lines in the crowd (1). For Al Golden’s shirt, draw a circle at the middle of the neck in orange and then add a tie shape coming off of it. Outline the shirt and the tie with black. For the jerseys, draw two lines on each sleeve in orange, add an orange triangle at the neck and draw whatever number you want in the center (3). For the helmets, add the U’s logo and outline the whole thing in black, adding some grates for the face mask and a circle for the earhole (4). For the medallions, draw the U’s logo in the center and outline the whole thing in black (5). For Sebastian, outline the white strip in the beak in black, add a couple lines for “teeth” then outline the beak and give him a black line above the teeth. Outline the outside of his face, making a squiggly line on the left side for his “feathers”, add his eye and outline the hat at the top (6). For the football, draw a curved horizontal white line about one third of the way up from the bottom of the cookie. Add two curved white lines to the sides starting at the top and ending at the previous line, then add the stitching and the outline of that. Take black and draw lines along all your white ones except the stitching (7)!